Bag Balm and Duct Tape: Tales of a Vermont Doctor

When young Dr. Beach Conger accepted a hospital appointment in rural Vermont, it was a mail-order marriage without either party seeing the other.He envisioned living out the rest of his days splitting wood, healing the sick, and being adored as a kindly country doctor. His new patients figured they had their work cut out for them, breaking in this whippersnapper M.D. from Berkeley, California.Beach Conger's tale of his training in the art of country doctoring is a joy. Listen in on the hilarious consultations as he finds a cure for vitaminia, induces laconic Vermonters to talk about "private" problems, and even reconstructs the formula for the "Green Pills" his predecessor invented. He especially brings home that most basic consideration -- the need for every doctor to be supervised by a responsible person, i.e., a nurse."An engaging blend of rustic wisdom and big-city know-how." -- Publishers Weekly

About the author (1989)

Beach Conger, M.D., was born in 1941 in New York City and grew up in Pleasantville, N.Y. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1967 and did his training in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and the University of California San Francisco. From 1969 to 1971 he was an offer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the CDC. From 1977 to 2001, he practiced general internal medicine at Mt. Ascutney Hospital in Windsor, Vermont. He then spent five years teaching hospital medicine at Medical College of Pennsylvanvia and Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, serving as chief of hospital medicine at the latter institution. In 2006 he returned to Vermont to practice in Windsor. He is a member of the Dartmouth Medical School faculty, where he precepts medical students in their primary care rotations.